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What's the situation?

You might have heard about what is happening to our Uyghur (pronounced “oi-ghoor”) brothers and sisters. If not, allow us to fill you in on the details. Uyghurs are a Muslim Turkic ethnic people, indigenous to the area given the colonial Chinese name of “Xinjiang” (meaning New Land) but commonly called East Turkestan by Uyghurs themselves. 

Records show that Uyghurs were the first of the nomadic Turkic people to transition into an urban lifestyle, and have called this part of the world home for over 4000 years.

“Not just Muslim leaders but supporters of human rights everywhere ought to be outraged at China’s attempted extermination of an indigenous people’s culture and religion.” Washington Post

This is a summary of a fraction of what Uyghur people are facing today, all of which are verifiable by the resources provided:

• Homes of Uyghur people being occupied by Chinese officials. That is, Uyghurs are forced to “welcome” Chinese officials into their homes to live with them. Photos of this are then being used as propaganda as a display of "integration".

• Internment “re-education” camps where “saying, doing, or even thinking the wrong thing can get you locked up” with no trial. There are currently 800,000 to 2 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims being held at internment camps.

• Torture is being used at these camps such as being clamped down in a ‘tiger chair,’ electrocution, teeth and nails being pulled out, sterilization, being beaten until dead, and more.

• Cremation of the bodies of Uyghurs who die at these internment camps, denying their families a proper burial. 

• Thousands of young Uyghur women are being forced into marriage with Han Chinese men.

• Uyghur children becoming orphaned with parents being taken away into internment camps for indefinite periods of time. Many of these children are taken to state-run orphanages where they are being taught/brainwashed into hating their religion and ethnic identity, and replacing it with speaking Chinese and adopting atheism. The parents of these children have no idea where they are.

• Once majority Uyghur-populated cities being systematically settled with increasing numbers of Han Chinese people, who are now the majority of the population.

Sounds awful right? It is. We have family and friends who have been affected by and directly experienced many of the above. There isn’t a single Uyghur who doesn’t have at least one family member who is currently held at an internment camp.

• The New York Times, December 2018: China's detention camps for Muslims turn to forced labor
• NowThis, December 2018: Activist Aydin Anwar on Chinese internment of Muslims 

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With Peace,

The Uyghur Atlas team

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